Seasons

I am very much a seasons person even though here there is not a lot of difference.  We see it in our yard. 
Summer is hot, wet and green.  We planted trees in a certain spot to make it cooler for us in summer.  It has taken eight years for the trees to grow to the height they are, but it has worked.  Sort of.  We still retreat to a cooler place, but the sun bares down on us for less time in our sitting place now.
Autumn here is my favourite season of the year.  They did a survey on people’s favourite time of the year.  Many said spring and many said autumn.  I like autumn here as is it cooler and there is less wind.  Though these days things are not as predictable as they were.
Winter is like the “hang in there” season.  Plants are dormant.  Frosts can cause a plants demise.  We do not get many here, but they do occasionally happen.  There is no growth but there seems to be an expectation.  Survive this and better times are on the way.
Those better times take the form of spring.  The place goes mad.  Growth happens everywhere.  Including the growth of weeds.  We have been marveling that one place that was bare is now green.  Only a close up look reveals the green is due in part to weeds.  Birds seem to love spring.  There are so many flowers to get nectar from.  We only discovered this spring that one of our trees flowers.  They are only visible from inside the canopy.
Life for me is pretty seasonal too.  The season can last a day or weeks.  Melbourne is famous for experiencing four seasons in a day.  For someone I was talking to winter seemed to have gone on a real long time.
Sometimes it is like spring and I am getting heaps of insights and what I am doing is going well.  Flowers and weeds are springing up everywhere.  I try to maintain the good and get rid of the bad.  I have my work cut out for me.  That is seen in the amount of times the lawn needs mowing. Like summer really. 
Autumn is sort of bittersweet.  Good stuff still happens but it is more behind the scenes.  This seems to be a very important season to me.  The only way I can survive winter is like the animals – prepare in autumn.  I need enough to tide me over. 
We hardly have a winter here, but I have always been glad when it is over.  Coming from Townsville I initially found Brisbane really cold.  I don’t now (I have this year.  Someone suggested it may be because the cold came in so quickly).  At work I could always tell when winter had arrived.  The students sought the sun.  In summer they seek the shade.  Winter for me has always been a time when it appears nothing is happening.  But it is behind the scenes.  I just need to see it through.  Dormancy is not death. The earth will warm up again that the cycle will restart. 
Hanging in is for me the name of the game.  I don’t always do the right thing but often I do and nothing compares to it really.
I try to use what I learned in each season and have enough left over to grow - like the trees in our yard.